Sacrifices
This chapter can be
considered as a summary of what has been written in this blog so far.
The sacrifices
are many.
The working hours are beyond normal. There will be limited
interaction time with family members. Till to date, it is hard for me
understanding what is called work-life balance or work-life harmony; and to
embrace the ideal of “inclusive society” is out of this world for me.
I may have about 8
hours for rest, relax and recreation daily. However, it is a daily struggle to get
that sufficient power sleep so desperately needed for my health, wellbeing and
to nurse my aching body.
Since the society at
large is functioning on a Monday to Friday work-life cycle; be it private or
statutory board; have weekend Saturday and Sunday as rest and off day and the
many more gazetted public holidays to be away from work and spent time with family. It is very difficult
for me to understand how I can be included and integrated back to these main
stream activities.
I still remembered how
my family wanted me to be included,
no matter what happened to my duty. Their never let down their support to me,
and it is not waning till to date. Whenever, we all could not meet up for either lunch or
dinner on Mother’s or Father’s Day; the next best thing for them to do was to
park the family car nearby the bus stop that, I am servicing, and literally
beckon for the bus to get me to stop the bus right in front of them, and when I
opened the bus front door, we will greet each other with warm and family love.
As a BC, unless
otherwise been schedule to have public holiday off , “PHO”; I am mandated to
work. I have become a bit lonely at times as appointment to meet up with my friends or
former colleague is very difficult to plan ahead. I only have about 7days visibility on what is the date
for my next off day. Lucky I am already married and have 2 adult sons with me.
If today, I am still young and still a Single; finding a life partner is also can
be a problem.
So the question is “Why am I still wanting to work as a Bus
Captain?”
Benefits of Been a Singaporean Bus Captain
Is
there a rewarding life as BC?
Many
people look for happiness outside themselves, but true happiness must come from
inside of us. Our culture tells us that happiness comes from having a lot of
money, power, and a high position in society. But if you observe carefully, you
will see that many rich, powerful and famous people are not happy. Many of them
have social, mental and behaviour problem.
I no longer aspire to have much of this
anymore, but I am happy because, I have something extremely precious: freedom.
It is said that, the most basic condition for happiness to arise is Freedom….Ven. Thich Naht Hanh
Freedom
As a BC in this public
transport industry, I have set myself with a multi prone mission to find out
what it takes to be one; why the take up rate by Singaporean/locals are so low,
and to explore whether this job can be rewarding career for anyone.
For 3 decades long, I
have been working in a normal type of office environment.
I was wired up with
telecommunications, emails, Microsoft software, Apps, SAP and complex
engineering assisted design software (CAD/CAE). At the end of each business
day; when I finally ready to pack up and
go home for dinner, I actually, did not leave my work or problem at the office; even when
I am driving my car back to home; many a time, I still keep the complex
engineering problem that I need to solve at the back of my mind. This is like,
I am physically not in the office, but I am mentally still inside it.
But for the last two years, I actually have complete Freedom from
this kind of mental situation ! Hurray.
Yes, you are right,
freedom from mental baggage been described above.
These are the freedom
you will acquire, when you wish to join this kind of industry:
No More justification
to work from home, basically and fundamentally, the moment, I clocked sign-off
or end-duty; there nothing left for me to carry physically or mentally back to
me House to work it out from home.
There is no further
quality failure issue or material shortages or potential line-down situation to
deal with further.
I am truly done for the
day. Just go home. The end of the shift work is indeed truly liberating. Even
the last bus trip apparently become a joy to me.
No more worry for
unfinished office task and unresolved issue to face come next morning.
Technically, there is no meeting to attend and nothing are needed to explain
for any past due dateline or unresolved quality issue to your project team member
or to my supervisor.
No string attached
During this 2 year time
frame, I did continue to go for my annual vacation with my wife and family. In
December 2014, I was in Sri Lanka and in March & December 2015, I was in Malaysia visiting
Penang and Kuala Lumpur; I am completely worry-free during this vacation. No
need to log-on to check any more company’s related e-mail.
No worry to whether, what will be the work load like;
when I get back to office after this annual leave holidays period.
The last time, I do have this similar kind of
feeling, is when I was in college studying for my professional engineering
papers (33 years ago); and The moment I completed sitting my last semester exam paper
!!
No More Office Politics
Managing people
problems and office politics are the past for me now.
At the height of my job
responsibility as Senior Operation Manager with a local public listed moulding
company, I managed some 250 staff. Almost every day, there will be problem to
handle related to people.
When I was a specialist
engineer in the R&D Dept., there still problem and office politics to
manage both inter and intra company. Today, I can joyfully declare that, I am
no longer trap in this type of man-made suffering cycle; I am
principally, a OMO, one-man-operation
and my customer is the commuting pax.
Good-Bye Sunday’s Afternoon Blue
No More Sunday afternoon and Monday morning’s Blue phenomenon.
This is for real.
Since I am on rotating
rest day roster, I usually do not have Sunday rest day. Previously, I do not
work on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, I will spend time with both parent by
playing mahjong to keep them mentally active and to resist the onset of
dementia disease.
However, on certain
Sundays, when my parents are not be available to meet up to have a session of
mahjong, and that is when the lousy feeling of Sunday afternoon devil will set
in. I just felt un-settle on Sunday’s evening hours.
But the good news is that, I now no longer have any such feelings
for the last 2 years.
Anything needs to worry about ?
I guess, the only thing
that I still need to worry is whether, is there any complaint forthcoming form pax or been summoned for traffic offence that may be.
To mitigate such thought arising and worry
about it; I touch my heart and say to myself, I have done what is possible and
to the my best of my ability for the duty that I have been entrusted to. So, I shall not be worry
about at the juncture.
I do receive
commendation and complimentary from time to time. To date, I think, some 250K
pax have taken my service. While majority who did give me a commendation, are
usually in the form of a simple verbal “thank you”; nevertheless so far, there
is one family man with a young daughter and a maid, he did come over to the front and
give me a pad on my left shoulder. I was so delighted for that day. I do not
know, what I have done to deserve it, but I guess it must be the smile and care
(driving carefully), that I have shown to him and his young daughter that
resulted in his goodwill gesture showered onto me.
Personal transformation
There will be a lot of opportunity
to for me to practice tolerance and patience in the course of my work as Bus Captain.
This is so when I need to deal with the in-firm and elderly folks and wheel-chair
based pax.
See how to be humble and
service the pax are some good trades off that I can get.
Career Path
The company embraced the progressive wages model.
Where I am working now;
there is a 7 step career path progression plan.
It is very well thought out
career plan. Since, I am raw (ground
zero) to this industry; I started off as a Trainee BC with just a Class3
driving licence with a basic pay of SGD1650/month.
Anyone, if he so wishes, can progress from the designation of a trainee BC, to Senior, Chief and eventually Master Bus Captain
International Friendship
Traditionally, the majority of the foreign BC come from all
overall Malaysia, including Sabah and Sarawak and Chinese PRC.
As a goodwill, I will
encourage the Chinese PRC to master some conversational English or Singlish.
However, they will give me a reply,” for what,
I need to learn it”. I am shocked and I can
only wish them well in their short stay here.
Majority of them, have no plan to
work here more than 2+2 years of contract. Even if they did renew their contract
for another period, often, I found out that, they will mutually call it off
before the contract expired.
The feeling is good to
be a translator for my colleagues. Though Mandarin is not my major, I major in
English and Bahasa Melayu; I still can have a good grasp of spoken Mandarin. So
when an Indian colleague from Malaysia wanted to communicate with his Chinese
shift duty partner, hand gesturing is a must to complete the communication and
information during the handover period. At time, I will be called upon, to be
the translator for both of them.
Usually, the Malaysian BC are more extrovert and
speak first in English, and I will translate message into broken Mandarin, the
Chinese PRC will reply in their fluent Mandarin and at time bombastic (or chim)
language, I will use my job operational related experience to give a
satisfactory translation into English for the benefit of the Malaysian
colleague.
Usually, they will try to communicate less between them
and keep to their own frock.
Most of the time, it
left to those local, and those Malaysian whom are conversant in both Malay, English or Mandarin to interact with both distinctive language camp.
NTWU membership
I have yet to convert
my NTA membership; National Taxi Association membership to NTWU. Till to date,
I yet to make up my mind whether, for long I will stay as a BC.
If I convert my
membership into National Transport Workers’ Union; I will be entitled to apply
both a Bursary and Scholarship Award from this Union. The minimum requirement
for the children to qualify for this award is that, he or she must have a GPA
1.6.
Since both my sons are
already a graduate themselves and have completed their NS duty; this may not be
the priority at this juncture for me.
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